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Unit 8 Focus on Global Warmingworth it
John Weier
Twenty-five years ago if you made a trip to the local library and perud the periodical ction for articles on global warming, you’d probably have come up with only a few abstracts from hardcore science journals or maybe a blurb in some esoteric geopolitical magazine. As an Internet arch on global warming now attests, the subject has become as rooted in our public consciousness as Madonna2 or microwave cooking.1
evanescent Perhaps all this attention is derved. With the possible exception of another world war, giant asteroid, or an incurable plague, global warming may be the single largest threat to our planet.2 For decades human factories and cars have spewed billions of tons of greenhosnaki
u gas into the atmosphere, and the climate has begun to show some signs of warming. Many e this as a harbinger of what is to come.3 If we don’t curb our greenhou gas emissions, then low-lying nations could be awash in awater, rain and drought patterns across the world could change, hurricanes could become more frequent, and El Ninos could become more inten. race是什么意思
Our Warming Planet
What has worried many people now is that over the past 250 years humans have been artificially raising the concentration of greenhou gas in the atmosphere. Our factories, power plants, and cars burn coal and gasoline and spit out a emingly endless stream of carbon dioxide. We produce millions of pounds of methane by allowing our trash to decompo in landfills and by breeding large herds of methane-belching cattle. Nitrogen-bad fertilizers, which we u on nearly all our crops, relea unnatural amounts of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere.
Once the carbon-bad greenhou gas get into the atmosphere, they stay there f
or decades or longer. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide levels have incread 31 percent and methane levels have incread 151 percent. Paleoclimate readings taken from fossil records show that the gas, two of the most abundant greenhou gas, are at their highest levels in the past 420,000 years. Many scientists fear that the incread concentrations of greenhou gas have prevented additional thermal radiation from leaving the Earth. In esnce, the gas are trapping excess heat in the Earth’s atmosphere in much the same way that a windshield traps solar energy that enters a car.4
Much of the available climate data appear to back the fears.5 Temperature data gathered from many different sources all across the globe show that the surface temperature of the Earth, which includes the lower atmosphere and the surface of the ocean, has rin dramatically over veral decades. Worldwide measurements of a level show a ri of 0.1 to 0.2 meters over the last century. That’s an increa of roughly
updatedata1℃ every 4,000 years. Readings gathered from glaciers reveal a steady recession of the world’s continental glaciers. Taken together, all of the data suggest that over the last century the planet has experienced the largest increa in surface temperature in 1,000 years.
Not surprisingly, many scientists speculate that such changes in the climate will probably result in hotter days and fewer cool days.6 According to the IPCC, land surface areas will increa in temperature over the summer months much more than the ocean. The mid-latitude to high-latitude regions in the Northern Hemisphere — areas such as the Continental United States, Canada, and Siberia — will likely warm the most. The regions could exceed mean global warming by as much as 40 percent.
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As far as human health is concerned, tho hit hardest will probably be residents of poorer countries that do not have the funds to fend against changes in climate.7wenchuan A slight increa in heat and rain in equatorial regions would likely spark an increa in vector-borne dias such as malaria. More inten rains and hurricanes could cau more 销量英语
vere flooding and more deaths in coastal regions and along riverbeds. Even a moderate ri in a level could threaten the coastlines of low-lying islands such as the Maldives. All across the globe, hotter summers could lead to more cas of heatstroke and deaths among tho who are vulnerable, such as older people with heart problems. The warmer temperatures may also lead to higher levels of near-surface ozone from cars and factories, which would likely cau more perilous air quality days and hospital admissions for tho with respiratory problems.
freundeTaking Actions
Fortunately, we can take actions to slow down global warming.8 Global warming results primarily from human activities that relea heat-trapping gas and particles into the air. The most important caus include the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil, and deforestation. To reduce the emission of heat-trapping gas like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides, we can curb our consumption of fossil fuels, u technologies that reduce the amount of emissions wherever possible, and protect the forests in the world.
We can also do things to mitigate the impacts of global warming and adapt to tho most likely to occur,9 e.g., through careful planning and other strategies that reduce our vulnerability to global warming.
But we can’t stop there. We are also advocating policies that will combat global warming over the long term, things like clean cars that run on alternative fuels, environmentally responsible renewable energy technologies, and stopping the clear-cutting of valuable forests.
